About Dr. Karen Bergstrom
Past Clients
National Nonprofit Leader
Dr. Karen Bergstrom helped develop, launch, and co-lead Safe Families for Children, a national movement serving families in crisis through volunteer-driven, community-based care. Her work in child welfare, foster care, adoption, and family systems has shaped her conviction that people heal and grow best through safe, consistent relationships.
Townsend Leadership Director
Dr. Karen is a licensed Townsend Leadership Director and executive coach, trained to lead TLP groups and guide leaders through the growth work that strengthens both character and competence. She has contributed to the development of the TPRAT and is connected to the broader Townsend ecosystem, including Concordia University Irvine’s Townsend Institute network.
Psychologist & Formation Guide
As a psychologist, Dr. Karen brings clinical depth to the real-world pressures pastors and Christian leaders carry. Her work integrates faith, psychology, and practical formation. She has helped leaders grow in connection, boundaries, reality, and ownership so they can lead with clarity, health, and strength.
Dr. Karen speaks to pastors, ministry teams, Christian business leaders, and executive groups on the growth that strengthens people, relationships, and organizations. Her talks bring together clinical insight, faith-informed wisdom, and practical tools leaders can use immediately.
Invite Dr. Karen to Speak Live
Dr. Karen Bergstrom is a psychologist, executive coach, Townsend Leadership Director, and national nonprofit leader whose work centers on how people grow.
For more than three decades, she has worked across clinical practice, nonprofit leadership, child welfare, foster care, adoption, family systems, and leadership development. Her experience has shaped a central conviction: people do not grow in isolation. They grow through safe relationships, truth, repair, boundaries, and the steady development of character.
Dr. Bergstrom helped develop, launch, and co-lead Safe Families for Children, a national movement serving children and families in crisis through volunteer-driven, community-based care. Her work with Safe Families reflects a lifelong commitment to eradicating social isolation and mobilizing the local church as a place of healing, hospitality, and practical support.
In addition to her nonprofit leadership, Dr. Bergstrom serves as a Townsend Leadership Director and executive coach, guiding pastors, CEOs, and senior leaders through the kind of growth that strengthens both personal health and organizational culture. Her work is deeply connected to the Townsend Leadership ecosystem and the Townsend Institute at Concordia University Irvine.
Dr. Bergstrom’s coaching and training are grounded in the Townsend Personal and Relational Assessment Tool, or TPRAT, which measures four core Life Capacities: Attachment, Separation, Integration, and Adulthood. These capacities reveal how a person builds trust, establishes boundaries, engages reality, and lives with ownership.
Her work brings together clinical depth, pastoral care, leadership wisdom, and practical formation. She has helped leaders grow in the capacities required to meet the demands of reality with courage, clarity, connection, and purpose.
Based in Orange County, California, Karen brings the same value for connection into her personal life. Whether she is gathering family around a cookout or spending time with her grandchildren. Her work is both professional and deeply human: helping leaders grow in the relationships, responsibilities, and callings that matter most.
